UV protection and You!

We are all much better now at using sunscreen to protect ourselves from the damage that can happen through UV rays.  Can the same be said about protecting our eyes?

The harmful effects of ultra-violet radiation on the eyes has now been well documented, however, what many do not appreciate is how important it is to protect children's eyes.  Children spend more time playing outside, their pupils are larger allowing for more light (including non-visible light) to enter the eyes.  Research has also shown that a significant amount of our total lifetime UV exposure now happens by the age of 18 and we know that the damage adds up over time.

So how can we protect our eyes?

UV protection -definitely cool

There's obvious steps which can be taken, common with general sun protection, like wearing a wide brimmed hat.  We can not, however, put sun cream in our eyes, so how do we ensure that they are fully protected?

Sunglasses

The most obvious choice would be to use sunglasses, as long as they have UV protection.  You can look for certain marks like UVX or UV400 to ensure that the sunglasses will do the job properly.  Without proper UV protection, sunglasses could actually make sun damage worse as the pupils will dilate behind the dark lenses allowing more UV to enter they eye than without.

Sunglasses should be well fitting and thankfully current trends of either wrapped style or over-sized sunglasses definitely help to max out the protection and reduce peripheral light from entering the eyes.

Prescription Glasses

It may not be obvious that your prescription glasses can actually help to reduce the amount of UV light getting to the eyes.  Higher index plastic lens materials have inherent in-built UV protection as part of their optical characteristics and even standard plastic (1.5 index) can have a UV blocking treatment applied to it. 

With added benefits of being robust and durable, it is easily argued that 1.6 index plastic should now be our standard lens material of choice.  It is thinner and lighter than standard plastic, safer for the eyes with the UV protection and particularly beneficial in children's glasses as it is incredibly tough.

While prescription glasses wouldn't replace good sunglasses for overall sun protection, it is worthwhile taking the time to discuss your requirements with your optician to make sure that you are making the best choice overall.

Contact Lenses

We are increasingly finding contact lenses coming with built in UV protection and it is a feature of the lenses manufactured by Acuvue that all of their lenses have a UV blocker.  The big advantage of contact lenses in UV protection is in reducing peripheral light which gets in to the eye from oblique angles, light coming from the sides, above or below.  This Peripheral Light Factor can cause real problems for glasses and sunglasses as the light can "creep" around the edges of the glasses or be reflected from the skin and then from the back surface of the lens.

Acuvue lenses with UV protection as standard

While contact lenses will not protect the whole eye, as they only cover the cornea in the center, they will add a level of protection which is a great supplement to good quality sunglasses.  They will also allow you to choose from non-prescription sunglasses, perhaps opening up options in style, selection and having multiple pairs to suit your mood or the environment.

Whatever you are doing, whatever time of year, when you are going outside make sure that you have the best protection available and if you are unsure of what works for you, speak to your optician or optometrist for the best advice.

Students - change your underwear!

At this time of year we have many students filling the streets of our fair city.  The sense of excitement the arrive with is almost visible in the air, their heads are filled with big thoughts, big dreams, great plans and (hopefully) a thirst for knowledge.

It can also be a somewhat scary time for the young students.  Taking their first real steps towards adulthood and independence and starting to make their way in the world.  Amazing opportunities will be open to them, the ability to create their own rules, the fun of making new friends and bundled along with this comes the boring bits of life - the responsibilities.

We all have these day-to-day mundane tasks put upon us.  They are chores, every day necessities, perhaps even the drudgery of life, but without them life's a whole lot less pleasant.  To some of the students it's perhaps a bit of a shock to the system that these items just don't seem to magically take care of themselves, a recent conversation on our twitter feed was a perfect example!

@OceanOptometry @ILOVELOCALHFX Awesome! My 1st yr Uni student just phoned in a panic- 2 weeks of dirty laundry & no coins for the machine :)
— ScaryReads (@skodejs) September 4, 2013

Ah, bless them, the little darlings!

What's this got do with optometry, you may wonder.  One of our challenges in the office, though, is in making sure when we are discussing contact lenses we make sure we share our feelings about the importance of a good contact lens wear regime.

Contact lenses bring many advantages over glasses and many people enjoy wearing their contact lenses, either as an almost full time alternative or as an option for sports or social occasions.  One of the main drawbacks of contact lenses, though, is that you are placing a foreign object on to perhaps the most important and sensitive organ of the body.  If our vision becomes compromised the results can be devastating, and yet the approach that some people take to contact lens wear can often be shocking.

When we start chatting about contact lens wear we often ask current wearers simple questions about how often they change their lenses, their lens cases, do they always use fresh cleaning solution.  Many wearers follow good care with their lenses, however, there are unfortunately those that don't.  People may answer that they wash their hands before handling the lenses ... but then they're putting the lenses in to week old stale solution in a case which is several years old! Worst still, people maybe try to get away with saline or some other solution!

As eye-geeks we're fairly protective towards people's peepers and this kind of thing just fills us with dread!  There are some really simple rules about safe contact lens wear:

1 - always wash and dry your hands before handling your contacts;
2 - always replace your lenses as per their proper schedule (most lenses are now either monthly, two weekly or single use daily lenses);
3 - always use fresh solution to disinfect your lenses overnight, allow for the minimum disinfection times necessary and swap out your case as per the solution recommendations;
4 - if you have a problem seek advice as soon as possible.

When we talk to people, reminding them of the basic rules they probably knew at the beginning of their contact lens wearing life, they often admit that they know they've just got in to bad habits, but they haven't had a problem yet.  The important word is the last one ... "yet".  Unfortunately, we have seen what happens when problems arise and they can take hold very rapidly without much warning.

A good contact lens regime can not guarantee that there will never be any adverse problems, but it will greatly reduce the risk of complications.  Just like changing your underwear and doing your laundry (students) will greatly enhance your general quality of life!

I know we've posted this elsewhere, but we do love this video from Acuvue also showing why regular replacement is important:

Up and running with contact lenses

We are now completely ready to fit and supply contact lenses for our patients.  There are many brands of contact lenses and sometimes choosing the right type of contact lenses can seem overwhelming, or perhaps you tend to think that they are all just the same, so what does it matter?

Being fitted for the correct type of contact lens doesn't just ensure that your lenses give you optimum vision, it also makes sure that the lenses fit correctly, are comfortable to wear and are not causing any issues with the health of your eyes.  As contact lenses have become an every day disposable item, it can sometimes be forgotten that you are placing a foreign body onto the surface of the eyes.

As part of our contact lens assessments we will make sure that the contact lenses that we recommended are most suited for your eyes and your lifestyle.  This greatly reduces the risk of complications and adverse effects.

We are very pleased to have decided to work with Cooper Vision and Acuvue as our principle contact lens providers.  Both companies offer an excellent range of lenses and we are delighted to be working with two companies who strongly promote daily lenses, arguably the healthiest option for contact lens wear.

If you would like to find out more about our contact lens services then please do not hesitate to get in touch.  In the meantime, here's a great video from Acuvue about the importance of healthy lenses: